


The Pilot

by agoodwoman



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-02 22:54:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6585937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agoodwoman/pseuds/agoodwoman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Scully decided not to pass on the run with Mulder in the pilot?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Change your mind?

“I’m way too wired, I’m going for a run, wanna come?” he asked as he bounced on his heels.

He had a backwards Royals hat on and he was dressed for something less than formal. She pictured him running off excess energy every night and she wondered if he had troubles sleeping.

“Pass,” she replied.

“Did you figure out what that little thing up Ray Soame’s nose is yet,” Mulder asked holding up his fingers an inch apart.

“No,” she said, feigning a yawn. “And I’m not going to lose any sleep over it either.”

Scully began to close the door. Just as it clicked she turned the cool knob in her hand again. Mulder had barely left her doorway.

“Change your mind?” he asked hopefully.

“As long as you don’t mind a shorter pace,” she quipped. There was about ten inches difference in their height and he had only made her aware he noticed it more than once.

His mouth turned up in a smirk. “I’m sure we can find something that works.”

“Just give me a second,” she said holding up a finger and closed the door on him.

She quickly changed into her sports bra and pulled a sweatshirt on overhead. It was Ethan’s and the letters Stanford stood out on her chest in burgundy against the grey material. She had a second thought to wear something else, something that didn’t bring up a question of ownership but the shrugged it off.

She put her wallet and badge in her running pack and a bottle of water from the mini fridge. When she found Mulder outside he was leaning against the railing, tossing seed shells onto the pavement near their rental car.

“Ready?” she asked as she pulled her hair up into a ponytail.

Mulder nodded and studied the shirt for a brief moment. She waited for a comment, one that centred around her not going to Stanford or why it was a size too big. His eyes drifted to her face and he nodded his head toward the parking lot.

“Ready?”

Scully nodded.

Their pace was a little slow at first and she sped up to show Mulder her comfortable speed. He gestured with his hand which road he wanted to turn down and they were headed into town. Their pace was comfortable for her but she wondered if this bothered his knees at all.

“So, Scully,” Mulder asked as he emphasized her last name.

Suddenly she wasn’t concerned about his knees.

“Stanford?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she replied. She wasn’t interested in giving any details away.

“I thought you were at Stanford in 87,” Mulder noted.

“Sure,” she agreed. She was.

“Your shirt says Athletic Department 86,” Mulder pointed out and tapped the number on her shirt.

“Do we really need to do the last names bit?” she asked in obvious avoidance.

They turned right down to main street but kept running.

“What’s wrong with that?” he asked.

“I think you don’t like being called Fox,” she said.

“I think you’re avoiding my question,” he retorted and stopped suddenly. He was barely out of breath and they had been running three miles.

Her eyes caught a glimmer of perspiration trickling down her neck and she caught a whiff of his sweat. It didn’t smell bad or sour. It smelled slightly earthy and she took a step back before her mind thought anything else untoward.

“Wanna get a bite?” he asked as he pointed his thumb at the sign of the pub overhead.

She looked down at their attire and shook her head. “Maybe we shouldn’t in public like this.”

“You can take that off,” he suggested innocently and she shook her head. His eyes widened at the realization and then flicked down to her chest. “Oh… Okay well…”

Scully rolled her eyes. “Fine. But we sit in the back and don’t talk to anyone.”

He smiled in that way that meant he was more than delighted to have gotten his way.

Mulder found them a booth in the back and was delighted when Scully got ID’d by the waitress as they sat down. They shared a pitcher of beer and three orders of medium spice chicken wings. Scully put the bill on her FBI credit card and they walked back slowly to the motel.

“Movie?” Mulder suggested as he pulled his key out from his pants pocket.

She studied him for a moment and wondered if the innocent invitation was merely that or he was trying to prolong his time before he was alone. Someone like him probably didn’t do well with solitary time. Shared spaces in quiet ambiance might be fine for him but she imagined him wanting to fill it up with his own voice as a way to reassure him that someone would listen.

Scully smiled regretfully. “I need to finish my notes.’

Mulder nodded and stood against her doorway as she fumbled with her own key. “Okay.”

She looked up into his green eyes and wondered if he would try to kiss her. Thankfully he didn’t.

“Good night,” she whispered and tucked herself inside before she tried to kiss him. Just to see what the beer tasted like on his lips.

“Good night, Scully,” he replied.

The teasing in his voice made her belly flip. Going to bed was definitely the smart choice.


	2. Coffee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> End of the episode

Whatever they were being told by Billy Miles, she felt as though none of it could be true. Yet with her own eyes, she saw that young man, who laid in bed 24 hours a day, somehow become aware and carry Theresa Nemman into the woods.

He said it was a voice in his head from another force he couldn’t explain. No one was able to decipher what really happened in the woods. The sheriff, the doctors and their report all felt like one continual addition to the lie the first case report.

Mulder stood inside the interview room with Dr Werber while she stood on the other side of the glass with Blevins and the smoking man. The room stunk like the Morley’s cigarettes, the most rancid of brands and Blevins’ cologne.

The men left the observation room and Mulder looked through the glass to hold her gaze. She wondered if he was still thinking of the series of moments they had while on this case. The run, in the rain and exposing herself in his his hotel room while she worried about mosquito bites. It had been a wild ride and they had only worked together a week.

“Scully!” Mulder called to her as she walked down the hallway.

She turned to him. “Mulder.”

“Where are you going?” he asked. “Billy Miles isn’t done making his testimony.”

She realized he was the equivalent a nuclear bulb. He was full of energy but could be dangerous at a close proximity. Letting him in could prove to be dangerous.

“I think I have enough for my report,” she replied. “I was going to get a coffee and start on it.”

Mulder caught her arm as she began to move away and she looked down at his hand on her wrist. He didn’t pull back as she might have anticipated. He wasn’t scared to touch her or invade her space. Part of her couldn’t decide if she minded or not. She should mind. They were going to be working together for a while. Ethan, her boyfriend who liked to spend more of his time at her place than his, wasn’t her first thought but he was in the back of her mind too.

“I can meet you?” he offered.

“You remember where my office is?” she asked and he nodded with a wry smile.

An hour later he was sitting across from her and spitting shell seeds into his empty paper cup. “So what are you putting in your report?”

“I’m trying to be personal and subjective,” she replied. “Anything I can’t explain with science will have to be as such.”

Mulder put his cup in the trash and licked the salt off his lips. Her eyes flicked down to them again and she turned back to her computer.

The bureau issued her a new one before she unpacked from Oregon and Mulder made a comment about their tax dollars at work. He was full of little remarks but had yet to make one about her bathrobe or grey cotton panties. She was sure he would have made one of those immediately. Maybe there was a gentleman underneath the man who had his Adult Video News mailed to his basement office.

“Do you subscribe to the idea that there was a force in the woods and the light we saw could be classified as an unidentified flying object, Scully?” he asked.

She sat back in her chair and studied his face. “An unidentified flying object as in plane, helicopter or other ship yes but UFO as in aliens and little grey men, no.”

Mulder sighed and rolled his eyes with a rueful smile. “Why can’t you believe?”

She didn’t know he would ask her this question for years to come.

“I believe there was something out there but I can’t believe that aliens were directing Billy Miles to kidnap his classmates. I can’t even substantiate the time loss you said we experienced,” she explained.

Mulder’s eyes widened. “You did before I told you that you had mosquito bites.”

Her face flushed and she pushed her chin out a little. He would come to recognize that face as one of defiance but it would do little to quell that it turned him on at the same time.

“I was scared, yes,” she admitted. “But mosquito bites and a bright light do not actually equate to aliens.”

He nodded. “What are you going to tell Blevins? They want you debunk my work and shut me down, Scully. If you go in there telling them I’m crazy I’ll be out of a job. Connections to congress and the senate or not.”

Scully removed the glass tube from her pocket and set it on the desk. “I kept this in my pocket for the majority of the investigation and I’m waiting for a lab test to come back on it. My immediate results were that the materials could not be identified.”

His face lit up and she could see him holding back a physical response. “You did that?”

She nodded proudly.

“I guess I was wrong about you, Scully,” he complimented.

She shrugged with a satisfied smile. “I have some uses I guess.”

Mulder sighed as he looked at her in the eye. “I’m sure.”

The innuendo hung in the air for a moment and she wondered if he was going to explain further. She didn’t need him to. He had enough pornographic material in his office to express what he liked.

“I have a meeting with Blevins in an hour. I should finish this,” she said quietly as she gestured to the computer.

Mulder patted her hand. “I’ll call you later.”


End file.
